Laser

By M. William Salganik and M. William Salganik,SUN STAFF | October 10, 1999

"Deep discounting," "special introductory offer" and "convenient mall location" -- strategies long used to entice American consumers -- are now being employed to sell something customarily discussed in the hushed tones of doctors' offices: eye surgery.Laser vision correction, however, is not ordinary eye surgery. It's an elective procedure, seldom covered by insurance. Thus surgeons have turned to the selling points of the retail world -- price and easy access -- to persuade consumers to spring for it."

Maryland State Police say they and federal authorities are investigating a 12-year-old boy who allegedly shined a laser light at a state police helicopter on Sunday night near the Carroll and Howard county line. Police said the helicopter, based in Frederick, was returning from a medevac mission when, in the vicinity of MD Route 27 and MD Route 144 near Mount Airy, a green flash illuminated the cockpit of the aircraft. Police said three more flashes, consistent with that of a laser pointer, were detected.

"Laser: The Inventor, the Nobel Laureate and the Thirty-Year Patent War," by Nick Taylor. Simon & Shuster. 320 pages. $27.50. At around this time last year, newspapers and magazines were rife with lists of the most notable achievements of the 20th century. Many of these honor rolls included an invention that has changed the way we communicate, shop, wage war, make maps, receive medical treatment and much, much else. This invention is the laser, that concentrated beam of light that scans groceries, corrects myopia and enables compact discs to be something more than futuristic-looking beer coasters.

For the past week, Robert Suhay has often imagined sailing the Chesapeake Bay, visualizing various tide patterns, weather conditions and landmarks as he tames the vast body of water. That mental exercise has helped the long-distance sailor keep his confidence high ahead of his attempt at a feat no one has accomplished: Starting today, the 51-year-old from Norfolk, Va., will try to sail the Chesapeake Bay, from Norfolk to Pooles Island near Chestertown and back, alone in a Laser dinghy, a sailboat just under 14 feet long.

Buying a printer for your home - whether for work, school or recreation - begins with a basic choice: inkjet or laser. A decade ago, the choice for most home users was an inkjet, which hit the market in 1992. Laser printers existed back then - a desktop model was introduced in 1984 - but were so expensive that they were far outside the grasp of most home users. Then about five years back, black-and-white laser printers plunged in price, becoming affordable for those who wanted fast, professional-looking documents at home.

MURRAY HILL, N.J. -- Lucent Technologies Inc., the world's largest maker of phone equipment, unveiled yesterday laser technology that can transmit large amounts of information through the air over short distances. The equipment, which will be available next year, could be used to transmit voice, video and other data between office buildings, for example, or ships at sea. The lasers can carry as much as 65 times more data than conventional wireless systems can.Lucent expects the laser products to appeal to phone companies that need to provide services in areas where it's impractical or too expensive to use fiber-optic cables, such as linking buildings across a river.

In the darkness, an electric blue shark grows from a tiny speck of light, its eyes focused on a tiny fish. In an instant, dinner vanishes inside its mouth.Welcome to ImaginOcean.The National Aquarium's new laser-animated exhibit opened yesterday after a year of work by designers, animators and laser technology experts. It temporarily replaces the Atlantic Coral Reef and Open Ocean exhibits, which are undergoing $12.7 million in renovations over the next 12 to 14 months."It's great," said Donna Reynolds of North Canton, Ohio, viewing ImaginOcean with her husband, Don. The Reynolds are vacationing in Baltimore until tomorrow, and have a passion for zoos and aquariums.

The final day of Severn Sailing Association's Laser Atlantic Coast Championship Regatta ended with a whimper off Annapolis yesterday afternoon.The only race that was attempted was abandoned in the face of an extremely light and dying wind, a strong flood tidal current, and a 20- to 25-degree wind shift that forced most of the fleet eastward into the mouth of the Severn River instead of south toward the first weather mark.In the absence of results yesterday, the regatta consisted only of Saturday's two races, falling one race short of the number required for an officially sanctioned championship.

D. Barry Coyle, a staff scientist at NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center, will present "Probing Volcanoes, Old Growth nTC Forests and Ice Sheets," a discussion and slide presentation on laser altimeters at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Decker Auditorium at Western Maryland College.Recent developments in laser altimetry have made it a viable tool for acquiring precise topographic data where radar resolutions may not be enough, Dr. Coyle said.His program will include slides from laser scanning flights over numerous sites of interest, including Mount St. Helens.

The first modern Olympic regatta was sailed a century ago in London in big boats with big crews in big winds. This year, it's little boats with small crews and tiny winds. That combination means sailors and their coaches will have to be adaptable and patient, just the formula used by Olympic Laser sailor Andrew Campbell and his coach, Bill Ward, over the past five years. Ward is director of sailing at St. Mary's College. Before that, he coached at Georgetown University, where he trained Campbell, who was named national collegiate Sailor of the Year three years ago and is ranked 15th in the world in the Laser class.

If you're packing for the Memorial Day weekend in Ocean City, leave the laser pointer at home - as usual - and don't even think about buying another. On Monday, the city council voted unanimously to ban the sale of laser pointers in Ocean City, including the boardwalk. The ordinance also bans the sale of "assisted-opening" knives or switchblades. Both bans are effective immediately. Not only can you not purchase the laser pointers, but the ban forbids having them in your possession when on public property.

The Town of Ocean City is taking multiple steps to increase safety on the boardwalk this summer, police officials said. Visitors on Memorial Day will notice increased surveillance cameras placed in strategic locations along the boardwalk. The city has always had a few cameras in position but those were mostly used for tourism purposes, said Lindsay O'Neal, spokeswoman for the Ocean City Police Department. "We will have dozen or so cameras total on the boardwalk - and we will have one of our employees monitoring the cameras," said O'Neal, adding that in the past the cameras were not generally used for policing purposes.

It's now summertime (unofficially) in Ocean City and some of you will be hitting the shore for the first time since last year. I took a gander around town during last week's Memorial Day celebrations, looking for new places and new faces. If you're headed over for this weekend's Ravens Beach Bash , here are some tips on changes at the beach that you'll want to know about: 1. Lasers we love. Visitors last Sunday got to enjoy some green lasers- no, not the kind from two summers ago that drove everyone crazy.

Ocean City is ready for the spotlight this weekend as the town launches into the summer season with a new laser light show. The O.C. Beach Lights Spectacular features lasers, videos, special effects and lights displayed on a 50-foot-tall sphere that looks like a beach ball. The show will take place Sundays on the beach at North Division Street three times a night - 9:30 p.m., 10 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. - from Memorial Day to Labor Day. "We're excited about it," says Donna Abbott, public relations manager for the Town of Ocean City.

A recent report by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments concluded, "Historically the U.S. military has often been slow to identify, adequately prioritize, and respond effectively to the emerging challenges likely to impose the greatest stresses on our forces in future contingencies…" The 30-year shipbuilding plan just submitted by the U.S. Navy unfortunately confirms this judgment, and recent decisions by the Senate Armed Services Committee...

A new downtown arena and hotel? Nice. An expanded convention center? Uh, OK. Laser light shows, dancing waters and all those other Vegas touches for the Inner Harbor? Well, now you're starting to lose me. This week brought the kind of big, shiny downtown development plans not seen since the days of William Donald Schaefer. Even Schaefer's old ally, Willard Hackerman reappeared, with a very cool $500 million offer to privately finance the proposed arena and hotel. I'm as primed for a jolt of new construction downtown as anyone, especially when Hackerman is willing to come up with more than half of the estimated costs.

By Karen Nitkin and Karen Nitkin,special to the Sun | December 27, 2006

Laura Khoury's birthday is Dec. 23. She likes to do something extra-special for her big day so it doesn't just become part of the overall holiday festivities. This year, for her 10th birthday, Laura opted for a party at ShadowLand, the laser adventure center in Columbia. She had gone to ShadowLand for a friend's birthday party, she said, and had really enjoyed it, even though her team didn't win the laser tag game. "It was really fun," she said. "I was in last place, but I really liked it."

With more than 30 reports of laser beams hitting airplane cockpits since Dec. 31, the government is warning the people responsible that they will be found and prosecuted. "Shining these lasers at airplanes is not a harmless prank," U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta said this week. "It's stupid and dangerous. You are putting other people at risk, and law enforcement authorities are going to seek you out ... and prosecute you." Despite the fresh urgency in Mineta's warning, the problem of laser beams aimed at airplanes - accidentally or on purpose - is not a new one. More than 400 such incidents have been reported to the government since 1990.

If the Backstreet Boys and new Kids on the Block concert has you wanting to relive the '80s and '90s, there's plenty of options available, including several dance parties, nostalgia acts and even laser tag. The Ottobar 's upstairs floor has long been a shrine to the kind of unadulterated pop that flourished then. On Saturday, DJs Sarrs and Starlight host a no cover "All Excess" night that will feature a selection of the best of INXS, Depeche Mode, The Cure and other new wave classics.

This might be hard to believe, but I'm not the only music writer on the Internets. Each week I'll compile the pieces I think are worth checking out. Check out the first batch: Noz, who has run one of rap's most vital blogs for years, breaks down the new Lil B x Phonte x Jean Grae x 9th Wonder track "Base For Your Face. " Noz, an early Based God champion, makes the excellent point that it shouldn't be shocking to hear B on a 9th Wonder beat — he's been rapping over that style for a long time.